


Contemplate

by AuroraNova



Series: The Vadari Chronicles [25]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24815341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraNova/pseuds/AuroraNova
Summary: “You’re one of the reasons I think I can be a good husband now.”Julian and Miles play darts and discuss Julian's upcoming marriage.
Relationships: Julian Bashir & Miles O'Brien, Julian Bashir/Elim Garak
Series: The Vadari Chronicles [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1336183
Comments: 38
Kudos: 169





	Contemplate

**Author's Note:**

> We often show Julian & Miles staying close friends, but I think in real life it would be easy for them to drift apart without meaning to. They'd both have to commit to putting in the effort to stay connected. One thing I wanted to do with the last story was give them a catalyst to make sure they do. And now Julian can relax. =)

Julian and Miles do finally get to go have their adult beverages the night before everyone gets on a transport to Vadari VII. They find a bar with a dartboard and decent ale at what Julian cannot help but notice is a lower price than Quark ever charged, and if there aren’t any sand peas, the variety of local nut on offer is quite tasty.

“How’s Garak?” asks Miles.

“He’s improving, though his legs are still achier than he’ll admit.”

“I may regret asking this, but can you tell that because you’re a doctor, or because you know him?”

“Both, actually. I wouldn’t expect anyone who suffered his injury to be completely comfortable at this point, and the tension in his neck ridges when he moves his legs is a dead giveaway.” Said tension is not easy to spot – of course Cardassian biology does its best to obscure weakness – but with practice, Julian has learned.

“Oh,” says Miles. “I hope he’s comfortable for the wedding.”

“I expect at least a ninety-four percent recovery by then. Cardassian physiology is remarkably resilient.”

“Lucky them.”

“Klingons are still the luckiest in that regard.” Redundant organs are unquestionably useful, and have saved many a Klingon life.

“Yeah, and to compensate they’ve designed painful rituals,” Miles replies. “Go figure.”

“I’ve never understood Klingon culture. Regardless, I left Elim happily sketching out designs for our wedding suits.” Elim is particularly pleased with a metallic thread he found here on Prela, one he says will be perfect for matching detail work. Julian has been promised a suit in his favorite blue and is content to leave all other sartorial considerations to his fiancé.

Actually, he has very little to do for his own wedding. He commed Kara to ask if she knew where they might be able to hold a small reception on short notice, whereupon she squealed and told him to leave it to her, plus volunteered to make the cake. At this point, all Julian has to do is get the marriage license. Then again, it’s to be a simple courthouse ceremony followed by an informal celebration, so no elaborate plans are required. Julian doesn’t need a big, extravagant wedding. He simply wants to marry Elim and celebrate with their friends.

“Hard to believe in a week you’ll be a married man,” says Miles.

“I’m looking forward to it.” Not least because he knows how much it means to Elim.

The thing is, while Julian doesn’t need marriage to be happy, he does like the idea very much all the same, now that he knows their relationship isn’t Elim’s consolation prize for leaving Cardassia again. Miles once told him that marriage is the greatest adventure of them all. At the time Julian viewed marriage as the end of adventure. Now he has some understanding of Miles’s point, and it’s a journey he is ready to embark upon for himself. Officially, that is. It really started six months ago.

“Not much time to plan a bachelor party, though.”

“I don’t care about that.”

Miles gives him an approving sort of harrumph. “Now I know you’re ready to get married.”

“You know,” Julian says, “you’re one of the reasons I think I can be a good husband now.”

“I am?”

“I learned a lot about how to make a marriage work by watching you and Keiko.” He didn’t enjoy any good matrimonial role models until them, actually, and for all that he’s known he didn’t want to be like his father for over twenty years now, it’s only in the last few that he’s identified a handful of specific learned relationship patterns he’d not previously realized were both extant and unhealthy. (He has Leeta to thank for two or three of those observations, as well. They might not have been destined to last, but he and Leeta both learned and grew from their relationship before their amicable parting, so Julian still considers it a success.)

“I haven’t always been as good a husband as I could’ve,” admits Miles.

Julian has yet to meet a perfect person. “Has anyone?”

“Not that I’ve heard.” Miles throws a dart and scowls when it barely lands on the board. “You are going to come visit sometime, right?”

“Yes. Maybe next year. If we come during the Academy’s summer break, I imagine your schedule will be more flexible, and Elim won’t be too cold.” Julian thinks he'll be able to handle Earth by then, and will put up with a meal or two shared with his parents if it means he gets to see Miles and family. Besides, Elim will be there so Julian won’t have to face his father alone.

“Sounds good,” says Miles. 

Julian is no longer afraid that he and Miles will drift apart due to distance. Their friendship will inevitably be different, seeing as how it all started with close proximity, but that doesn’t mean Miles will forget about him.

While this trip didn’t turn out as planned, it has been far more freeing than Julian imagined.

“So, any words of wisdom on marriage?”

“Try not to kill his plants,” says Miles.

Julian chuckles. “I make it a policy not to touch the red leaf tea tree.”

“Probably a good idea. I don’t know, Julian. Your marriage won’t have a lot in common with mine. Keiko and I don’t argue for fun, or spend days gathering evidence for philosophical debates about books. Just remember that you’re a team, and I think you two’ll figure it out. You’ve done well enough so far.”

“Your vote of confidence is appreciated.”

Miles takes a drink, and apparently finds something amusing in his mug. “What?” asks Julian.

“Just remembering when you ran into Ops after meeting Garak, convinced he was a spy who wanted your Starfleet secrets.”

Ah, yes. Sadly, that doesn’t even make the top five most embarrassing moments of Julian’s first year on DS9. He still cringes at the ridiculous fantasy Jadzia. “It’s just as well we didn’t sleep together like he wanted that day. We couldn’t have lasted then.”

“You’d read one too many spy novels.”

“Possibly.”

“Never would’ve guessed you’d end up marrying him.”

“At that time, you never would’ve guessed you’d be my best man, either,” points out Julian.

Miles picks up his mug. “Here’s to the good things we don’t see coming.”

“I’ll drink to that,” says Julian, and they do.


End file.
